Volume 8, Issue 7

THE

@tblucsb / thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu UCSB’s Weekly Student-Run Newspaper

Associated Students, UC Santa Barbara | Volume 8, Issue 7 | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26, 2013 Speak Volumes’ UCSB Humyn ‘2 Future’ Rights Week News / 3

A&E / 10

IV BEAT REPORT

Photo by Giuseppe Ricapito | IV Beat Reporter

Photo by Magali Gauthier | Photo Editor SNOW DAY: Lindsey Jesberg at UCSB’s first Let It Snow! event in Storke Plaza on Nov. 18, 2013.

Napolitano Teach-in Spurs Questions on Immigration and UC Master Plan

Photo by Alex Albarran| The Bottom Line

Current and former Gauchos met to talk about UC President Janet Napolitano at the Napolitano Teach-In that occurred on Oct. 14, 2013, near Lot 22.

by Alex Albarran-Ayala Staff Writer

D

uring Humyn Rights Week, Human Rights Board (HRB) in collaboration with Improving Dreams, Equality, Access and Success (IDEAS) held a teach-in on UC President Janet Napolitano on Thursday, Nov. 14.

Some of the objectives going into this event were to discuss who Napolitano is and to provide a forum for undocumented students to share personal stories. Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan as class commitments altered the event. In the end, the teach-in was mostly led by HRB. The conversation started with a brief history of Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security, and then moved to deportations, privatization of the UC system, and speculations about the emergence of a new UC Master Plan.

The attendees expressed discontent upon hearing about the inconsistencies of some deportations, and they questioned whether some of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) actions were legal. Some even called out some of their actions as illegal upon hearing of people being deported for minor traffic violations. The group had believed that ICE had a policy of deporting people for serious crimes, not minor ones.

One personal story was shared about a local girl who was sepa-

rated from her father. The students present did not continue discussing personal stories, however, because they did not want to speak on behalf of undocumented students who were unable to attend.

HRB Outreach Coordinator Mario Vasquez mentioned that some groups in the UC system are pushing for a new UC Master Plan. In response to that, Vasquez and some others who were present shared a common view: why should the plan be changed if the existing plan has not yet been implemented effectively?

“Implement the one we have right now,” Vasquez said.

Started in the 1960s, the California Master Plan for Higher Education dictated that “free accessible high quality education” would be provided to students, according to Vasquez. The current Master Plan is meant to secure high quality education at affordable prices.

Other concerns expressed were in regard to people with no background working in education who are hired in administrative positions in the UC system. The most discussed example was, of course, Napolitano. However, their observations coalesced into a body of evidence against the privatization of the UC system. As more people with no background working in education are hired, these students worry that the UC will be run more and more like a business rather than as institutions of higher education that provide affordable high quality education to all students.

VOX Film Screening Reveals Problems in Pregnancy Care AROUND THE WORLD

by Pragya Parmita Staff Writer

V

oices for Planned Parenthood (VOX), an on-campus advocacy group that strives to educate students on the usefulness of Planned Parenthood and increase support for the organization, hosted a film screening of Christy Turlington’s “No Woman No Cry,” a documentary focused on the risks surrounding pregnancies in various parts of the world.

The film focuses on four at-risk pregnant women, all in different parts of the world and in varying situations. The film begins with the story of a pregnant woman in a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania whose delivery is shrouded with complications. Unable to give birth in her home village, the woman has no choice but to pay more than the family’s entire monthly income for a van to take her to a hospital an hour away. She arrives at the hospital only to find that the hospital does not have adequate equipment for her condition.

The film then returns to the United States to point out that such difficulties are not always so foreign. It focuses on the ex-

tremely high health care bills for those without insurance or for those whose insurance does not cover pregnancies and pre-natal care. If a woman without health insurance were to have a C-section, it would cost her between $15,000 and $20,000—a price tag that does not even cover sufficient pre-natal care.

The film juxtaposes the absence of health care facilities in Tanzanian villages with the lack of affordability of many health care facilities in America. It then moves on to present a slum in Bangladesh, where women are scared even to give birth in a hospital because of the disastrous stories surrounding these facilities.

It also discusses a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, a country with very strict anti-abortion laws. Women in Guatemala risk death with unsafe abortions, and even after experiencing complications, are often too afraid to admit to the abortion.

The film estimates 65,000 risky abortions per year. World Health Organization also estimates that 1,000 women die in childbirth across the world everyday. “No Woman No Cry” increases awareness of such horrific realities of our world in a persistent hope for change.

IV Foot Patrol Officers sit down houseless residents who were in violation of the district’s open container policy.

A Changing Landscape for the Isla Vista Houseless

by Giuseppe Ricapito IV Beat Reporter November is National Homeless Awareness Month, but Isla Vista’s houseless residents claim they are facing mounting harassment from police and dealing with a shifting local paradigm over formally acknowledged living arrangements.

Many houseless residents feel that their presence is increasingly unwelcome in the context of the gentrification of downtown Isla Vista. The sentiments of the houseless community often fall on similar subjects—the respect of human dignity and an end to what they feel are discriminatory police restrictions.

“I’m sick and tired of all the harassment,” said Timothy Glass, a houseless resident.

Isla Vista Foot Patrol Lieutenant Rob Plastino stressed that a policy of “equal enforcement” administered local policing—that crime occurring on Del Playa is treated with the same level of seriousness as crime occurring in Isla Vista parks.

“Our message to the homeless is ‘hey, if you follow the rules, you won’t get in trouble…you’re a human being and we treat you with respect,’” said Plastino. “The majority would tell you that our treatment of the homeless is exactly the way we would need to do it under the law.”

“Houseless,” a documentary produced in Isla Vista from 20092010, provides direct insight on the lifestyle and personalities surrounding houselessness in the local community. Community Affairs Board (CAB) screened the film at the Santa Barbara Hillel during Humyn Rights Week.

The film served as a testimonial to the humanity of the houseless community, but underlying the documentary was grim introspection on the realities surrounding social inequity. Featuring a

See HOUSELESS | Page 2

AS BEAT REPORT

Photo by John Clow | Staff Photographer

AS Senator Montana MacLachlan discussing the typhoon relief fund.

AS Senate Resolves to Fundraise for the Philippines and Support Statewide Education Reform

by Kelsey Knorp AS Beat Reporter Associated Students Senate passed “A Resolution to Provide Assistance to the Philippines for Typhoon Haiyan” and “A Resolution to Support the Creation of a New Master Plan for the Higher Education for the State of California,” while tabling “A Resolution to Support UCSB Employees” at its meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

“A Resolution to Provide Assistance” approves the creation of the UCSB Typhoon Haiyan Fundraising Initiative, which will raise up to $5,000 per period during two individual collection periods.

The funds raised will be matched by Associated Students funds and given to the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns as aid to those affected by the Nov. 8 disaster. The initiative will be organized by resolution authors Off-Campus Sen. Beatrice Contreras and OnCampus Sen. Nikki Calderon.

“There is a precedent for fundraising for disasters like this, created by Senate in 2012 for [Superstorm] Sandy and [Legislative] Council in 2010,” Contreras said.

The resolution, which originally called for a single two-week collection period beginning immediately after its passage as well as a matched amount of up to $25,000, was amended after

See SENATE | Page 2

The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

News

–SENATE

Continued from page 1

concerns were raised regarding the effectiveness of fundraising so close to the end of the quarter as well as the impossibility of matching the amount requested with Senate funds. As passed, the resolution will allow for a collection period

at the end of fall quarter and an additional period at the end of winter quarter.

Former Associated Students member and University of California, Santa Barbara alum Marjan Riazi, whose family was directly affected by

Photo by Diane Ng | Staff Photographer

A UCSB student making a donation to the Typhoon Haiyan Fundraiser.

–HOUSLESS

the tragedy, emphasized in her testimony during public forum that the initiative need not worry about immediacy with regard to the donation.

“This is not a process that will end anytime soon,” Riazi said. “Money coming at any point in time is money that they can use.”

“A Resolution to Support the Creation of a New Master Plan for the Higher Education for the State of California” declares support by Associated Students of the formation of a survey committee to draft an updated California Master Plan for “quality, accessible, and affordable education.” The committee would comprise students and faculty affiliated with California higher education as well as government officials and others who would dedicate themselves to wholly re-envisioning the plan for the first time since 1960.

The resolution’s passage also calls for External Vice President of Statewide Affairs Alex Choate and AS President Jonathan Abboud to draft a letter to UC President Janet Napolitano, Gov. Jerry Brown, and several other state officials regarding the Master Plan’s renewal.

“We’d be the first people in a long time to be making this statement,” Abboud said. “It’s really important that ASUCSB is ahead of the curve.”

“A Resolution to Support UCSB Employees” was proposed in conjunction with the wishes of the UCSB Student-Worker Coalition (SWC) to obtain Senate support in time for an all-day strike by American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees 3299 (AFSCME) on Wednesday, Nov. 20. UC workers represented

by AFSCME 3299 will stage the strike as a means of protesting the unsatisfactory terms of their contracts with the UC system, which they claim are inferior to those of their private-sector counterparts.

According to Jacqueline Partida, organizer for SWC, a failed Nov. 1 flash mob staged by students in the on-campus dining commons serves as a prominent example of the intimidation faced by workers who attempt to stand up for themselves. The flash mob, which served to support the same cause as the impending strike, was forcefully shut down almost before it had begun.

“If this is how they treat their students, how is management treating the workers?” Partida said.

Though the resolution was tabled due to requests made by senators for more specific numerical figures pertaining to the workers’ pensions, discussion will reopen at Senate’s Nov. 20 meeting.

Continued from page 1

range of residents in the houseless community, “Houseless” strongly resonated with both students and houseless in the crowd.

“I think it meant a lot to them,” said Bridget Quan, a fourth-year CAB Hunger Houseless coordinator. “Seeing their friends that were now passed… And they were really excited to see themselves on the screen. To see the houseless and community members, represented in one room, was very cool.”

Many of the Isla Vista houseless contend that, recently, local police have engaged in undue harassment. The houseless are concerned that restrictions on their freedom of movement are meant to drive them out completely.

Many of the Isla Vista houseless realize the danger of ticketing or incarceration that goes along with public intoxication, but the issue has served as justification for police officers to ramp up enforcement. Many pointed to the targeted discrimination of the houseless as an ethical and civil gray area considering that the same issues, and often more potent substances, can be found among student residents.

Cliff, a houseless resident featured in the “Houseless” documentary, described what he believed were unauthorized “banishment laws” applied to the Isla Vista houseless.

“They say if you get a ticket for smoking or drinking or camping you get kicked out for 48 hours, if you get another ticket you’re kicked out of all the parks for a year,” Cliff said.

From a legal standpoint, these are Isla Vista

public spaces that are owned by either the local Parks District or by Santa Barbara County.

Plastino indicated that both local ordinance and county law govern IV Parks, but banishment occurs only after a series of “violations and warnings.”

Though fair use of public space has been a common historical arrangement, the Isla Vista houseless contend that an intolerance against their presence has barred them from inhabiting, or even visiting, certain public spaces.

On Friday, Oct. 17, houseless residents were issued an eviction notice to leave the parking lot area around People’s Park.

“The houseless resided on the outsides of those properties, because they were privately owned and nobody was there,” said Ali Guthy, a Collegiate Senator and liaison to CAB. Initially, the Isla Vista Redevelopment Agency (RDA) owned the parking lot and land surrounding the medical clinic and former church building. The Santa Barbara City website notes that all IVRDA properties are now all the property of the County.

The expulsion of the houseless from this property reflects a limiting number of public spaces available for co-habitation. With a no-camping ordinance and allegations of loitering an overarching hazard, much of the houseless population is seeing dwindling options in Isla Vista.

Pescadero Lofts, a $10 million, 32-unit homeless shelter, is slated to begin construction at 761 Camino Pescadero later this year, according to a California Tax Credit Allocation Committee

Photo by Giuseppe Ricapito | IV Beat Reporter

Kona “Smalls”Cummings takes a picture of “Gork”Stork, one of many aquatic birds living on the pond at Anisqu’Oyo’ Park.

Project Staff Report.

The shelter “offers that interim step” for the houseless “to get cleaned up and get back into society,” Plastino said.

Guthy also said, from her understanding, that “it’s going to be an application based program and it will be a sober program… There will be bed space, but you will have to submit to the restrictions of the program, which include sobriety.”

For the most part, the houseless inhabit a cultural swath that is largely out of sight and out of mind for the student population of Isla Vista. But Cassandra Anderson, a houseless resident that could easily be mistaken for a student, summed up the perspective of the houseless community: “This is our home.”

Read the fulls story at: thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu

NATIONAL BEAT REPORT

TBL 2013-2014 Staff Executive Managing Editor | Cheyenne Johnson Executive Content Editor | Parisa Mirzadegan Copy Editor | Camila Martinez-Granata News Editor | Lily Cain Features Editor | Katana Dumont Opinions Editor | Anjali Shastry Arts & Entertainment Editor | Deanna Kim Science & Technology Editor | Matt Mersel Photography Editor | Magali Gauthier Senior Layout Editor | Robert Wojtkiewicz Layout Editor | Beth Askins Layout Editor | Morey Spellman Multimedia Editor | Brenda Ramirez National Beat Reporter | Allyson Werner Isla Vista Beat Reporter | Giuseppe Ricapito Associated Students Beat Reporter | Kelsey Knorp Promotion and Distribution Director | Jordan Wolff Advertising Director | Marissa Perez Staff Adviser | Monica Lopez Writers this issue: Julia Frazer, Giuseppe Ricapito, Kelsey Knorp, Allyson Werner, Bailee Abell, Lexi Weyrick, Evelin Lopez, Madison Donahue-Wolfe, Chris Ortega, Sam Goldman, Peter Crump, Pragya Parmita, Travis Taborek, Gilberto Flores, Steven Villamizer, Coleman Gray, Mimi Liu, Cindy Chan, Janani Ravikumar Photographers this issue: Margarita Baliyan, John Clow, Giuseppe Ricapito, Magali Gauthier, Benjamin Hurst, Lorenzo Basilio, Diane Ng, Nick Hong, Alex Albarran Illustrators this issue: Hector Lizarraga, Amanda Excell The Bottom Line is sponsored by the Associated Students of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Opinions expressed in TBL do not necessarily represent those of the staff, AS, or UCSB. Published with support from Generation Progress/Center for American Progress (genprogress.org). All submissions, questions or comments may be directed to bottomlineucsb@gmail.com or content.tbl@gmail.com.

The Bottom Line provides a printed and online space for student investigative journalism, culturally and socially aware commentary, and engaging reporting that addresses the diverse concerns of our readership and community. This is your community to build, share ideas, and publicize your issues and events. We welcome your questions, comments, or concerns at bottomlineucsb@gmail.com, or call our office phone at 805893-2440.

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Cuts Affect Americans on Food Stamps

by Allyson Werner NATIONAL BEAT REPORTER

Starting at the beginning of November, the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP), experienced extensive cuts, totaling $5 billion. The food stamp cuts alone were expected to affect roughly 47 million Americans.

According to USA Today, SNAP benefits roughly one out of every seven Americans, and a family of four that used to receive $668 per month in benefits found that amount cut by $36.

The San Jose Mercury News, based on reports by the Department of Agriculture, reported that the cuts have affected more than 4 million residents in California alone and will amount to a decrease of roughly 21 individual meals per month per person.

SNAP is administered by the Department of Agriculture and is authorized every five years in the farm bill, a comprehensive piece of legislation that covers all government policies related to agriculture.

Two factors resulted in the extensive cuts.

First, President Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill, which gave SNAP a fiscal boost, came to an end. Second, Congress has yet to agree on a new farm bill.

In other words, the cuts are, once again, the result of Congress’ inability to come to an agreement on the budget.

Attempts to create a new farm bill have been fruitless. At the beginning of November, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill that would cut $39 billion from SNAP over the next decade. In contrast, the Democratic-controlled Senate approved a bill that would only cut $4 billion.

According to USA Today, the farm bill generally wins bipartisan support with little resis-

tance because it includes funding for agricultural programs favored by farm and business interests in addition to SNAP, which is supported by liberal and urban interests. However, this year Congress and the Senate are struggling to reach an agreement, and the inability to compromise could result in price increases as certain dairy supports expire.

Food banks throughout the United States have braced themselves for increased demand.

According to The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Ohio Association of Food Banks distributed $227 million in food to residents in need in 2012 and will not be able to make up a $190 million deficit in 2014.

University of California, Santa Barbara’s on-campus Food Bank, which is open to registered undergraduate and graduate students, offers non-perishable food and toiletries to students.

Erick Lankey, a third-year economics and accounting major and AS Food Bank Committee Chair, weighed in on the SNAP cuts.

He emphasized the impact on individuals with strict dietary needs.

“Even though the cuts may seem small [up to $36 for a family of four, $11 for an individual], they affect everyone on the program, especially those who may have certain dietary restrictions,” he said. “Food that meets these requirements is usually less available and more expensive in grocery stores.”

Lankey does not expect to see a huge surge in the number of people utilizing the AS Food Bank services.

“I could see students possibly taking out more items when they come into our space or using the service extra days of the week,” he said. “But probably not a huge surge in sheer number of people.”

Time will tell of the further effects of the cuts.

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The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

News

HUMYN RIGHTS WEEK — EVENTS AROUND CAMPUS USAS Commemorates Deaths of Bangladeshi Sweatshop Workers

by Julia Frazer Staff Writer United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) held an action in front of the library on Thursday, Nov. 14, to commemorate and raise awareness about the collapse of the Rana Plaza apparel factory in Bangladesh that killed 1,129 workers.

“The Rana Plaza factory that collapsed just over six months ago was eight stories tall, roughly same size as our library,” said Chris Wegemer, one of the organizers of the event and a third-year graduate student in global studies.

The pavement in front of the library was completely filled with paper silhouettes representing the 1,129 killed. Each cutout, which represented 10 workers, had either a picture or relevant information to the factory accident.

One cutout had a quote from a mother discussing her daughter who also worked at the factory.

“I fell from the fourth floor. I lost consciousness and woke up four hours later. I have not seen my daughter since,” said Runa Rani.

According to another cutout, “In more than two decades, not a single factory owner in Bangladesh has ever been prosecuted for the deaths of workers.”

The goals of USAS were to raise awareness through a powerful and visual event and to support USAS’s Bangladesh campaign.

“For the first time in history, there’s

an agreement between apparel manufacturers and factories to take responsibility for safety,” said Wegemer.

USAS wants to get all of the manufacturers for University of California, Santa Barbara to sign the agreement.

“The event was absolutely effective,” said Earl Perez-Foust, secondyear graduate student in comparative literature.

He thought it was important to grab the attention of students travelling across campus.

“Taking those pathways and putting messages in there is a really good way to reach out,” said Perez-Foust.

According to Wegemer, USAS is the largest worker rights coalition in the United States.

Organizations on university campuses have become the forefront of global worker’s rights because of the immense value of the collegiate apparel market, worth approximately between $3 and 4 billion a year. Additionally, because universities are not profit maximizing organizations like a big-box store, the possibility for moral considerations becomes more feasible.

Members of USAS passed out close to 2,000 flyers and tabled all day to get people thinking about sweatshops, effectively reaching many students.

“All too often, we forget that there are people making our clothes,” said Wegemer. “And this is a real issue for people all around the world.”

Photo by Benjamin Hurst | Staff Photographer

Above: Body cutouts taped to the Arbor walkway brought attention to the Rana Plaza factory accident on Nov. 14, 2013.

Photo Courtesy | Enrique Villa, member of USAS

Above: Kaylena Katz, a member of the United Students Against Sweatshops UCSB Chapter, tapes down a human cutout.

Arab Student Group Raises Funds to Aid Syrian Refugees

Photos by Benjamin Hurst | Staff Photographer

Above: Co-president Georgina Kasih Mejia gives first-year Ashley Tolliver a henna tattoo.

Left: Students in the Arab Student Group fundraised for Syrian refugees by selling food and henna tattoos on Nov. 14, 2013.

Kelsey Knorp AS Beat Reporter As a part of Humyn Rights Week, the Arab Student Group held a fundraiser for Syrian refugees through the sale of homemade Middle Eastern food and henna tattoos on the Lot 22 lawn on Thursday, Nov. 14. The proceeds will go through the Moroccan organization Les Rangs d’Honneur.

Arab Student Group (ASG) co-president Bayanne Mina Alrawi said that the group hoped to raise $800 to $900 through the event. This would top last year’s total of $600, a figure that had been impeded by higher food production costs. By making their own food this year, the members of ASG hope to generate more proceeds for an organization that Alrawi cites as highly effective

in its philanthropic efforts.

“We came to this organization because 100 percent of the proceeds that we’re going to send them [will] go directly to helping the refugees,” Alrawi said. “They have a very specific and calculated way to track where our money goes, so we know exactly what we’re doing.”

Les Rangs d’Honneur, originally founded in remote parts of Morocco, is composed of doctors and surgeons who have cultivated the ability to practice surgery in under-equipped areas by turning trucks and local schools into “mini-hospitals.” The group is a private association that operates without the help of state institutions or public funding.

The project to aid Syrian refugees will be implemented in Turkish and Jordanian camps, where it can be ensured that the money

will be allocated solely to those fleeing ethnic conflict within their home country. ASG historian and co-treasurer Sarah Alami believes Les Rangs d’Honneur will be the most reliable means of achieving this goal.

“They didn’t want to go to Syria itself because the situation is dangerous there to begin with, and also because they don’t know where the money [would] be given,” Alami said. “We have no political stance.”

Both Alrawi and Alami feel confident knowing that they will be able to trace exactly where the ASG donation will be allocated, and that Les Rangs d’Honneur will provide them with feedback about its effect.

ASG plans to hold another fundraiser for the Syrian cause sometime during the spring.

Humyn Rights Week Workshop Discusses US Use of Drones A look into U.S. military involvement in the Middle East and Philippines

by Travis Taborek The ways in which different manifestations of oppression and exploitation are intersectional and interrelated are often subtle and not always immediately obvious.

This was exemplified during “From Midanao to the Middle East: Life Under Drones,” an interactive workshop presented by the Muslim Student Association and Kapatirang Pilipino on Tuesday, Nov. 12, one of a number of events that are a part of Humyn Rights Week.

The workshop, which was largely interactive and encouraged group

input and discussion, was intended to provide a forum and space for the discussion of the social and human rights implications of drone warfare as an implementation of foreign and military policy, using the history of colonization and U.S. military occupation in the Middle East and the Philippines as case examples.

It was not apparent to many of those present how the respective histories of how the two regions were connected in terms of the way they have experienced foreign interventionism. Cofacilitators of the workshop Megan Foronda, fourth-year sociology major and member of Kapatirang Pilipino,

and Hani Tajsar, fourth-year Middle Eastern Studies major and member of the Muslim Student Association, intended to rectify this by relating the historical precedents seen in the two examples in a broader global context of imperialism and oppression.

“I think there’s this idea in mainstream media and society that the war on terror specifically targets the Middle East, when in fact it targets an array of nations that are deemed threatening,” Foronda said. “I think the reason why the Philippines hasn’t really gotten that much attention is because it’s not even in the center of the conversation, there’s no awareness around the depth of the war on terror in terms of where it is happening.”

Advocates of the use of drones in warfare claim that their precision

capabilities minimize collateral damage. In an attempt to counter this view, Tajsar proceeded to show a slide demonstrating how the use of drones has increased dramatically since the Obama administration, and that most of those killed since the beginning of their use in 2004 have disproportionally resulted in the deaths of children, civilians, and other non-combatants.

“I think it’s important to know that the struggles that different communities face are very much connected,” said Tajsar. “The folks that are actively in charge of perpetrating imperialism and colonialism would like different communities not to band together, so they frame conflicts in such a way to prevent that, but in fact, as we saw in the workshop, the liberation of all these different communities around

the world is linked together.”

Among the salient points of the workshop was a discussion of how University of California, Santa Barbara students are in some way complicit in the war on terror, insofar as their tuition fees fund research programs that are either directly or indirectly fund the drone strike campaigns and other facets of the military.

“I think it really depends on questioning where our money goes,” Foronda said. “I think what we can do as UC students is challenge the Regents in giving us information about where our money is specifically going and how our money is involved in these conflicts abroad, and how we directly pay into the research and development of these weapons.”

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The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

Features

SBMA Celebrates Atelier, 8Os Style

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art held an “atelier”, meaning “workshop”in French, on Nov. 15, 2013.

Photos by Lorenzo Basilio | Staff Illustrator

Museum docents explain the intricacy of John Divola’s work at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art on Nov. 15, 2013.

by Gilberto Flores “Atelier” is a French term meaning “workshop,” which was the key idea behind Friday night’s Atelier event at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Put on by the museum biannually in the spring and the fall, Atelier is an intimate evening of interactions with art in the museum’s galleries.

At Atelier, guests are invited to explore and learn about current art exhibitions through the use of immersive and interactive workshops, games, and food inspired by the art itself. Aside from the event’s efforts to display and enhance the guest’s artistic experience, Atelier helps local businesses and organizations by giving them a place to promote themselves while interacting with the exhibits.

Friday night’s Atelier was entitled “The Earth is The Bottom of the Sky,” a title almost as intriguing and thought-provoking as the art itself.

The event featured two of the museum’s current exhibitions, “John Divola: As Far As I Could Get” and “Totally 80s: Gifts to the Permanent Collection,” which also served as the inspirations for the event’s overall 80s theme.

John Divola’s diverse set of photographs, featuring photos dating from 1975 to 2012, was one of Atelier’s main attractions. Divola has spent his entire 40-year career in Southern California, growing up in the San Fernando Valley and working as a visual artist and art professor throughout much of the region. This current exhibit, “As Far As I Could Get,” is a collaborative exhibition that runs simultaneously in three different Southern California art museums, the other two being the

Musicians accompany the artist’s presentation.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Pomona College Museum of Art. The exhibition explores Divola’s diverse visual artistry and what has been described as a combination of the artificial and the real.

As guests stepped into the Sterling Morton gallery, one of the first things they saw was a long, empty, black sheet of paper on a long table.

A puzzling sight at first, the paper was revealed to be the “As Far As You Can Get” Gallery Game, one of many interactive stations throughout the museum’s galleries. The photo series of the same name was created through Divola setting the timer on his camera for 10 seconds and then sprinting off into the distance of his frame. One of these photos featured a wide landscape of trees and the comparatively small Divola, 10 seconds after sprinting away from his own camera lens. In this game, guests were given 10 seconds to make their mark on the black sheet of paper using a white piece of chalk.

By the end of the night, what began as a simple sheet of paper became a collaborative work of art by Atelier’s guests.

The other star of the night was the “Totally 80s” exhibit, where guests were invited to enjoy the era that made them who they are through art, drinks, and interactive collage-making. As we entered the exhibit, one of the most prominently intriguing pieces of art was Peter Alexander’s 1981 collage, “Ling.”

The piece is simply a series of diverse surfaces painted and pasted onto a velvet backdrop. What seemed like a close-up of one of our grandmother’s ugliest sweaters turned out to be one

of the more beautiful works of art at the exhibit, and my personal favorite.

Inspired by this abstract piece of 80s artwork, the Velvet Collage workshop station invited guests to create their own collage on pieces of black velvet.

Ian Cutler, a local distiller and University of California, Santa Barbara alum, was stationed at the entrance to the “Totally 80s” exhibit, providing guests with samples of his locally produced whiskeys and craft spirits. Cutler graduated from UCSB with a double major in chemistry and geology. Growing up in the 80s fueled Cutler’s appreciation of art, and he sponsors events like Atelier to promote his own artistic passion for distilling. This is just one of the many ways Atelier helps promote local businesses.

Community outreach also plays a role in Atelier’s mission. One of Divola’s pieces featuring running dogs was used to promote local humane societies and animal shelters. One of these local organizations included the Humane Society of Ventura County, which provided Atelier with literature for its guests to help bolster donations and volunteerism for local animal shelters.

“Atelier is a wonderful opportunity for our community to engage with our current exhibitions,” said Kendall Pata, a local graphic designer and museum teaching artist. “These events make art more accessible by allowing the viewer to create, interact, and explore.”

If the mission of Atelier and SBMA is to engage the local community around art, then mission accomplished.

Members and art enthusiasts appreciating John Divola’s exhibit.

Nancy Graves “Archial”from 1987 displayed in the Totally 80s exhibit.

In the spirit of John Divola’s exhibition, visitors were given 10 seconds to make their mark.

Guests created a collage of painted shapes on black velvet.

Student Environmentalists Invade Anacapa Island

by Bailee Abell

Located just 11 miles off the California coast is Anacapa Island, a paradisal haven to a multitude of plant and animal species. This remote island is the smallest of the four Channel Islands—the other three being Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel—and is just six miles from one end to the other. Even though from a distance Anacapa seems like an oasis, it is currently undergoing major ecological restoration by selfless volunteers from different areas in Southern California, including the University of California, Santa Barbara.

On Sunday, Nov. 17, the Community Affairs Board (CAB) at UCSB headed an excursion to Anacapa Island in hopes of creating environmental awareness by working to remove the ice plant, an invasive species that has been detrimental to the preexisting habitats of the species on the island.

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“This plant threatens native plant communities as well as the island’s bird nesting habitat,” said Karina Paonessa, CAB’s Environmental Coordinator, who ran the event.

In order to perform this restoration project, CAB had to recruit a sufficient amount of volunteers, and the application process was far from easy.

“CAB had online applications in which over 100 people applied for,” said Paonessa. “It was my job to then select the 14 most enthusiastic and eager candidates based on the applications.”

One of the accepted volunteers, Megan O’Beirne, was so thrilled to be part of such an impactful project.

“With [15] people doing a day’s worth of work, I think we can really make a dent in this project,” said O’Beirne. “Obviously, total restoration cannot be accomplished in one day, but everyone on this trip (including myself ) probably volun-

teered because they felt they could make a difference.”

O’Beirne became involved with CAB because she is an Environmental Studies major, and she was interested in volunteering to restore the ecology of Anacapa Island because she loves “the notion of reintroduction of native species in order to return a region to its original state. I am very interested to see how we as humans can step in and undo what we believe to be the ‘harmful’ things that nature has done to itself.”

O’Beirne is one of the handful of students chosen by Paonessa to be part of this project. Though she just became the Environmental Coordinator this fall quarter, Paonessa has been interested in the environment since before she came to UCSB. “Last year was my first year at UCSB and I immediately fell in love with the beautiful surrounding environment and

nature,” said Paonessa. “I wanted to be involved in the environmental movement on campus (which influenced the world’s first Earth Day in 1970 after the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara). I became involved with CAB’s environmental events last year and became the Environmental Intern Spring Quarter.”

The excursion lasted from Sunday morning to evening, and Paonessa, as well as the other volunteers, wanted to do this project to “help out with the ongoing restoration project on Anacapa Island in hopes that one day the island will be back to its original habitat.

Overall, the trip was a success.

“We planted about 250 plants during our time on the island,” said Paonessa.

“All of the volunteers were happy with how the trip turned out and were grateful for the opportunity… I think there is a major possibility that CAB will do this project again.”

The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

Features

AS Program Board Brings Ice Skating to UCSB Photos by Diane Ng | The Bottom Line

A grinning little boy, proud of his ice skating accomplishments.

by Lexi Weyrick STAFF WRITER Contributions from Parisa Mirzadegan EXECUTIVE CONTENT EDITOR

Two friends pose for a photo on the ice skating rink.

A student laughing as she and her friend goof around.

Outside the temperature was in the 70s, yet inside Corwin Pavilion, students were ice skating in a winter wonderland. The University of California, Santa Barbara’s Associated Students Program Board decked out the pavilion with holiday cheer to host a synthetic ice skating event for students and community members on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

“It’s a cool thing, I think, just in Southern California, because there’s no real ice skating here,” said Aditya Sharma, a fourth-year political science major and the AS Program Board special events coordinator. “So we thought, ‘Why not bring ice skating—in some fashion—to UCSB?’” At the event, AS Program Board also had a card decoration table for attendees to make holiday cards and attach them to stuffed bears

for students of the local elementary school. In addition to a host of charitable organizations, there was apple cider, sugar cookies, and a photo booth complete with various props.

Attendees were given raffle tickets upon entry and could win prizes ranging from clothing to gift cards for the campus bookstore. AS Program Board also provided the ice skates, making it easy for people to show up and get right on the (synthetic) ice.

TaiSonya Tidwell, a fifth-year anthropology and black studies double major, commented on the event’s use of synthetic ice instead of actual ice.

“It feels a little harder; I think maybe they just need to spray a little more of the stuff on there to make the ground more slippery,” Tidwell said.

“But it’s pretty cool—it’s a cool first experience.

If you’re just testing it out, I think it’s great for that.”

Students were able to enjoy the event while also feeling like they were helping out the community.

“I enjoyed ice skating,” said third-year computer science major Aura Roy, “but I especially

enjoyed making cards for the elementary school students. Also, the photo booth was hilarious.”

“I think it is great,” Tidwell said, laughing.

“I’ve been having a lot of fun.”

Sharma discussed the different charitable organizations that were in attendance.

“We actually tried to get a couple different ones,” he said, “but we just didn’t get responses from them, so we went with IV Elementary and the local school here.”

Attendees glided (or stumbled) around the ice skating rink and huddled near the organization booths, and many had apple cider and cookies in hand.

The event was open to the public, free of charge, and the AS Food Bank advertised that donations could be made at the event. From students checking out the event in between classes to a mother helping her young son learn to navigate the synthetic ice, there was a decent turnout for the event.

Sharma described the biggest success of the day as, “Just having people come out and enjoy themselves—seeing that all of them are having fun and that they’re coming out.”

Tim Cope Shares His Story at Campbell Hall On Monday, Nov. 18, Australian explorer Tim Cope mounted the Campbell Hall stage for a unique show-and-tell of his threeyear journey across the Eurasian Steppe—a journey he made entirely on horseback.

Photo by Lorenzo Basilio | Staff Photographer

The Santa Barbara Independent Wins EPPY Award

by Lexi Weyrick STAFF WRITER When the staff of the Santa Barbara Independent found out they had won an EPPY award, most were wearing Halloween costumes.

Matt Kettman, senior editor, received an email on Halloween morning requesting a picture of the whole team for the EPPY Award. After some research, Kettman realized that the day before, the Independent had received one of the publishing industry’s most prominent honors, an EPPY Award.

Most of the staff members had completely forgotten about entering the competition in the first place. Eventually, the staff that was in the building assembled on the roof of the Independent’s offices and took the picture, Halloween costumes and all.

The EPPY Awards, presented by monthly magazine Editor and Publisher, honor the best media-affiliated websites across a variety of categories. The Independent won the 2013 EPPY for Best Weekly or Non-Daily Newspaper Website with under 1 million unique monthly visitors.

The international contest, now in its 18th year, has honored huge media outlets such as CNN, ESPN, and the Associated

Press. It is an incredible honor that a small news organization like the Santa Barbara Independent has been commended with an EPPY. “It’s nice to be nationally recognized by well-qualified people who spent a lot of time judging,” said Mike Gahagan, web content manager.

According to Editor and Publisher’s guidelines for judging, “categories are judged on criteria such as design, ease of use, comprehensiveness, and timeliness, with special attention to each entrant’s value added through the unique attributes of interactivity.”

Robert LeBlanc, the Independent’s webmaster, was pleased when he learned of winning the 2013 award. “It makes me happy because I always keep usability and ease for the user in mind when I’m designing,” he said.

This is not the Independent’s first time being honored. In 2008, the Independent received the award for Best Weekly NewspaperAffiliated Web Site after its complete overhaul in April of 2007, when it began to publish daily articles online.

“We thought it was a bit premature,” said Kettmann. “I think this year’s award is a little more meaningful.” Kettmann expressed the great pride the Independent’s staff had for winning the award and being recognized for their hard work.

Independent.com has developed exponentially since winning

the EPPYs years ago. According to independent.com, the site is the area’s most visited community website, and has the largest online audience in Santa Barbara county. Their website receives approximately 12,000 page views a day.

“We put up anywhere from five to a dozen fresh stories a day on the site,” said Kettman. Keeping the website modern and engaging is sometimes difficult. “Initially, the biggest challenge was guiding the culture of the staff to appreciate and contribute to the web and see it as just as valuable as the print product, or at least approaching that value.”

The Independent is always careful about the content that is on the website.

“There are always things that drive up traffic naturally,” said Gahagan.

Many news organizations use sensationalist stories to increase their page views, such as coverage of pop stars escapades, but according to LeBlanc, “We’ve discussed that sort of thing and we’re going to stay away from it.”

Staff members from the Independent always try to improve their content and layouts.

“We’re a pretty small organization,” said LeBlanc, “so we do a lot of work and try to make it look presentable as best we can and be as timely as we can.”

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Photography

The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

LET IT SNOW,

A decorative Christmas tree.

Chelsea Storaker, fourth-year at UCSB, smiles in the snow.

Tyler Hadley, second-year at UCSB, building a snowman.

Aileen Baik, second-year at UCSB, giggles as she tries to pick up snow.

Lindsey Jesberg at UCSB’s first Let It Snow! event.

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Photography

The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

Two girls laughing in the snow at UCSB’s first Let It Snow! event in Storke Plaza on Nov. 18, 2013.

LET IT SNOW.

Winter came early to UCSB this year when UCSB First hosted an afternoon of music, s’mores, hot chocolate, and synthetic snow.

Photos by Magali Gauthier

Event workers toss blocks of ice at each other.

Michelle Tores, left, and Yess Garcis, right, build Pablo the Snowman at UCSB’s first Let It Snow! event.

Decorations at UCSB’s first Let It Snow! event.

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Arts & Entertainment

The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

Photos by Lorenzo Basilio | Staff Photographer

Above: Film students and enthusiasts asked members of the Risky Business crew several questions at the Script-to-Screen Event at Pollock Theater on Nov. 14, 2013.

Left: Director of Pollock Theater Matt Ryan discussing Risky Business with Actor Curtis Armstrong at the Script-to-Screen Event at Pollock Theater on Nov. 14, 2013.

The Business of Paul Brickman’s ‘Risky Business’ As part of the Carsey-Wolfe Center’s Script-to-Screen series, Paul Brickman, writer and director of “Risky Business,” came to Pollock Theater on Nov. 14 to speak about making his visions into reality and the troubles they encountered with Warner Bros. Studios.

by Steven Villamizer

ALBUM REVIEW:

Paul Brickman’s 1983 classic coming-of-age film “Risky Business,” starring a 19-year-old baby-fat-donning Tom Cruise, was screened at Pollock Theater courtesy of the University of California, Santa Barbara’s CarseyWolf Center’s Script-to-Screen series.

Writer and director Brickman (“Uprising,” “Men Don’t Leave”) and costar Curtis Armstrong were joined by producer Jon Avnet (“Black Swan”) for a Q&A session after the screening.

“Risky Business,” Brickman’s first major work as both a writer and director, tracks the transition of Joel Goodsen (Cruise) from a restrained, bookish suburban boy out to impress Ivy League schools into someone more confident and aware of the world, and of its dangers and possibilities. Central to Joel’s transformation is Lana (Rebecca De Mornay), the call girl that bursts into Joel’s life

The Bottom Line: 6/10

anything but conventional. He began by developing the film’s tone, then the themes of criticism on modern capitalism, and then finally came up with a story that would help make sense of it all. Producer Jon Avnet was quick to point out that meeting Brickman’s stylistic demands was no simple task.

“Paul’s nature is very specific,” Avnet said, “and his visual style is very good but very exacting, and getting the time for him to get his vision realized [was] a problem.” He went on to praise the final product, however, saying that “visually, this film holds up extremely well.”

On the topic of difficulties that were encountered, Brickman and Avnet did not hesitate to criticize their distributing studio, Warner Bros. Pictures, because the studio had demands about how the film should end.

Though Brickman’s initial vision for the film’s conclusion was more ambig-

uous and melancholic, leaving the futures of Joel and Lana in uncertainty, the studio insisted on something different. After what Avnet described as a “bloody, six- to eight-month battle,” Warner Bros. came out on top and had a more upbeat, optimistic ending.

The feud was complicated and protracted enough that it prevented the film from having a premiere, which, along with other distribution shortcomings, hampered the film’s success in reaching its box office potential.

Nevertheless, Risky Business was a success, grossing more than $60 million over its modest $6 million budget.

“Script to Screen,” sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center and the Film and Media Studies Department, is featuring a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” as well as a Q&A with star Malcolm McDowell on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m.

Grizzly Bear’s New ‘Shields: B-Sides’ a Mixed Bag

by Coleman Gray Staff Writer

Photos Courtesy | pitchfork.com

thanks to a prank by his friend Miles (Armstrong). Graceful, daring, suave, and with a keen eye for both business and trouble, Lana must help Joel get enough money to repair his dad’s Porsche which, thanks to her, spends a night in Lake Michigan. The solution—turning Joel’s home into a brothel for his rich school friends to indulge in—tests the young man’s courage and teaches him a thing or two about finding his feet in a chaotic world of eat or be eaten.

The film oozes style, and for Brickman, its creation was not as straightforward as one might initially imagine. Having watched Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist” (1970), he explained to the audience that he wanted to take that film’s sense of style, “mix it with humor, mix it with sexuality, and…see where that goes.”

The process of composition was

The Brooklyn-based indie band Grizzly Bear is a bit of hodgepodge, both artistically and commercially, but I say that with the utmost respect.

They are a very interesting and challenging band that constantly strives for innovation, but nobody outside of the group can possibly figure out where they are going next.

Including the release of “Shields: B Sides” on Nov. 11, Grizzly Bear has now released four full length albums; in between these releases, they have put out three secondary EPs and an album of remixes. While this may not seem totally out of the ordinary in the current musical zeitgeist, Grizzly Bear creates these albums with such sincerity and effort that they do not seem like secondary releases at all.

This is again evident with their latest release of “Shields: B Sides.” The al-

bum is technically a follow-up to their universally acclaimed 2012 release “Shields,” but it is far more than a collection of songs that got left off their previous album.

Much of the album is quintessential Grizzly Bear, as the five previously unreleased songs perfectly demonstrate the complex harmonies and diverse range of influences, including the blend of psychedelic undertones, choral rounds, and folk riffs that the band is known for. These new songs are some of the finest they have made, with “Smothering Green” and “Listen and Wait” serving as the two most memorable. “Smothering Green” in particular would have stood out in any album they have previously released, but in this truncated issue, it is easily the focal point. This subdued and raw song is most noticeable among the more produced songs on the rest of the album, especially the remixes that finish it out, and “Smothering

Green” deserves all the attention one can give it.

Much like Grizzly Bear’s 2007 “Friend EP,” their newest release features a series of songs that are as polished and well-produced as their studio album that preceded it, featuring again an added dimension by the influx of outside talent. But while in the past Grizzly Bear has featured fellow indie and rock bands much like themselves, including Band of Horses and Atlas Sound, this album employs the talents of house producers Nicholas Jaar and Lindstrom, as well as the electronic band Liars.

However, these artists do not contribute much to the overall album. The three songs “Sleeping Ute” remixed

by Nicholas Jaar, “Simple Answer”

by Liars, and “gun-shy” by Lindstrom finish off the album in a less than satisfactory way. Their attempts to freshen the three songs from “Shields” are admirable, but they do not improve

on them. Eventually, each one devolves into repetitive droning that is definitely not what one would expect from Grizzly Bear; far from necessary, these tracks frankly do not belong on this album.

While the final three songs on “Shields: B Sides” are neither necessary nor exemplary, the five other songs are definitely worth a listen.

You cannot blame Grizzly Bear for trying to expand their musicality and their audience; but for a band that’s always trying to push the boundaries of music, I feel the remixes were just a step too far. However, the five true Grizzly Bear songs on “Shields: B Sides” definitely make up for the final three. And, if you are a fan of their past work, the five previously unreleased tracks are a great addition that you never thought you needed until you listen to them—and once you do, you will discover that they are absolute necessities.

The Legendary Madlib Plays Superb DJ Set at The Hub

by Chris Ortega Staff Writer Upon first hearing that Madlib was coming to UCSB, I was stunned. For one thing, he hardly ever tours or plays shows that often. When he actually does, they are sporadic and occur with very little warning. Madlib also hardly ever does interviews or interacts with the public at all, so just being in his presence is an honor. However, in a show presented by University of California, Santa Barbara’s Associated Students Program Board, the legendary DJ, producer, and MC Madlib graced The Hub, along with rapper and CEO of music club Low End Theory, MC Nocando, this past Thursday, Nov. 14.

Madlib describes himself as a “DJ first, producer second, and MC last.” Born Otis Jackson Jr., Madlib is just one of the several monikers the elusive artist uses in his work; other names include Quasimoto, Yesterday’s New Quintet, Jackson Conti, and The beat conductor.

Spanning several different genres such as jazz, hip hop, and funk, Madlib is an extremely talented artist—without a doubt one of the best music producers alive right now—who has made significant contributions to the hip hop and music world. He has collaborated with artists such as Freddie Gibbs, Mos Def, MF Doom, and J Dilla.

Being an avid fan of his work, I was ecstatic to finally see him live. Naturally, I had high expectations for the show, but Madlib’s sublime DJ set

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blew them all away.

MC Nocando, a former battle rapper and freestyle savant, wonderfully opened the night up with a display of his lyrical prowess. His DJ played some beats to set the mood while Nocando hyped himself up at the back of the stage before he started doing his thing. His history of battle rapping showed, as his superb mic skills gave him a dominating stage presence that was a blast to watch. He stated that he was playing mostly new songs, and they were all good. In between songs he would jump into well-executed freestyles.

Nocando discussed topics like his life and the music industry, and his inviting, intimate lyrics gave The Hub a strong, warm vibe. Nocando declared that it felt as if he were playing a couple of his songs in his living room—a sentiment that rang true for me, as I certainly felt at home during the set.

The audience members seemed to really be fans of hip hop music, and this passionate feeling added to the show’s atmosphere.

People were chanting Madlib’s name as his decks were being set up, and a certain feeling of anxiety grew in me as I couldn’t help but think whether or not this—a live performance by one of my favorite artists—was really about to happen.

Certainly not one for gimmicks, Madlib simply walked up and started spinning. He didn’t say anything; Madlib just let the music speak for

Photos Courtesy | http://static.guim.co.uk/ itself. The music he played was similar to that of his “medicine show” series of albums, which is anything and everything, from funk and disco to obscure afrobeat songs. The music was all very rhythmic and it was almost impossible to keep from moving and bobbing my head along to the sounds that, despite jumping around, all seemed to work together. It was a definite lesson on what a DJ should do: be daring and driven by feeling, not by what is popular or what people think a DJ should play.

Madlib clearly loves music, and it showed, as he motioned the lyrics of almost everything he played. I couldn’t help but smile as I recognized that genuine love for music he exhibited.

He played some key tracks from his discography and a lot of tracks from acts with which he is associated. Jaylib’s “The Official” and “The Red”; Quasimoto’s “Come On Feet” and “Low Class Conspiracy”; Madvillain’s “Accordion,” “Paper-

mills,” and “Lootpack”; Slum Village’s “Fall In Love”; and new tracks from his collaborations with Freddie Gibbs were all played to much praise. He also played some classic hip hop, including songs from Notorious BIG and A Tribe Called Quest.

Perhaps it was because he was so close to his hometown of Oxnard, or because of the loving vibe that the crowd emitted, but Madlib did not seem as though he wanted to stop playing music.

Overall, his set was just around two hours long and was almost an overabundance of music, although he stopped right before it got to that point. The amazing set filled me to the brim with excitement.

The show was certainly something special, as it was a surreal experience to watch someone so talented and dear to me in such an intimate setting. The night was a dream for fans of hip hop and a pleasure for fans of music.

Arts & Entertainment

Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt Bring a Little Country to Campbell Hall

The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

by Coleman Gray Staff Writer

Photos by Lorenzo Basilio| Staff Photographer

Above: Lyle Lovett (left) performing alongside John Hiatt (right) at Campbell Hall on Nov. 12, 2013.

Right: John Hiatt performing at Campbell Hall on Nov. 12, 2013.

All quarter long, the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Arts & Lecture series has put on great shows for the school and local community, and this past Tuesday night marked a special treat for all who had the pleasure of attending the show at Campbell Hall.

In what seemed more like two great country musicians just hanging out than a concert, Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt demonstrated the musical chops and relaxed storytelling sensibilities that have made them two of the most respected musicians of their genre. Labeled “An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt,” this intimate event kept the audience enthralled, entertained, and laughing for hours.

With two careers that have combined to span

more than 60 years and have spawned 36 albums, four Grammy awards, and countless performances, the two had more than enough exceptional songs to perform. Lovett and Hiatt spent the night playing some of their greatest hits in alternating fashion (with the other occasionally providing backup vocals or adding a lively guitar riff ), including some of their most popular songs like “If I Had a Boat,” “Master of Disaster,” She’s No Lady,” and “Thing Called Love.”

The two brought their unique blend of humor, blues, and pure Americana to an adoring crowd.

They were also joined by special guest, Grammy- and Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Ryan Bingham, who blew away the unsuspecting audience as well as Lovett and Hiatt with his heart-

breaking and beautiful original songs.

But while the music was brilliant, the best part of the night was watching the performers themselves. They really made the audience feel at home, and despite my seat at J-26, these two transcendent musicians made me feel as if I were listening in on their jam session.

Featuring only the duo and their guitars on stage, the performances were relaxed and carefree. At one point, Hiatt forgot every word after the first verse of “Across the Borderline,” and was forced to riff and scat along to the guitar accompaniment, as well as the muffled laughter of the audience and his partner on stage.

Lovett, sometimes known as the clown prince of country, and Hiatt, a consummate jokester

in his own right, kept the audience entertained in between songs with humorous anecdotes of past shows, jokes one’s dad might tell, and the kind of playful ribbing that can only come after years of friendship and performing together.

In a relaxed fashion, Lovett and Hiatt spoke of diverse topics such as their first show together, their times with the local color of Santa Barbara, and of a man who popped out his glass eye after what must have been a particularly moving performance of “One-Eyed Fiona.”

It was with this kind of endearing comfort that made the night so much fun; everybody was relaxed and in the mood for a great time, and Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, and Ryan Bingham delivered.

VocalMotion Catches Fire at Their First Performance of the Year

Jake Goldman of Naked Voices opening for VocalMotion.

Sara Frederiksen going solo during “Barton Hollow.”

Photos by Diane Ng | Staff Photographer

Naked Voices opening for VocalMotion.

by Evelin Lopez VocalMotion, the only all-female a cappella group at University of California, Santa Barbara, held their first concert of the year this past weekend on Saturday, Nov. 16, at Isla Vista Theater 1. The show was presented in the theme of “The Hunger Games” in tribute to the second installment of the movie series “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.”

Sponsored by Associated Students and hosted by Improvability, the event also featured acts by the Naked Voices and Brothas From Otha Mothas, allowing the audience to see what potential the group and their opening acts had in store for the upcoming year.

Before any singing occurred, two

VocalMotion’s finishing pose after their last song “We Made You”by Eminem.

New VocalMotion member Julia Diamond ready for her first UCSB concert of the year. members of UCSB’s Improvability group, Mason Sperling and Matt Meyer, were introduced as the hosts who would entertain the crowd throughout the night. Once the members of the audience were settled, the hosts introduced two a cappella groups that would open for VocalMotion.

The first opening act was UCSB’s co-ed a cappella group Naked Voices.

The group started the night refreshingly, hinting at what the audience could expect for the rest of the evening.

Their set list, made up of various songs that balanced the different octaves of the group’s male and female voices, got the crowd pumped up for the next act. Following Naked Voices was the all-male a cappella group, Brothas From Otha Mothas (or BFOM), who demonstrated with their performance

that a group’s unique style can still fall within the a cappella world.

The transition from Naked Voices to BFOM was smooth, for the host Sperling took on a solo, singing Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” BFOM then accompanied Hunter Schwarz’s solo of Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” and Mike Newsom’s solo of The Temptation’s “My Girl,” enchanting the audience with their vocal arrangements and powerful voices.

Notably, BFOM was able to mimic sounds of trumpets and chirping birds, allowing the audience to see their playful style of a cappella.

After the opening acts, the ladies of VocalMotions ran onto the stage to prepare for their set. Each member was dressed in a different outfit that

represented a character in “The Hunger Games.” One side of the stage was decorated with vines clinging onto the microphones, representing the poor districts of Panem, and the other half of the stage was adorned with golden garlands, representing the luxurious Capitol of Panem.

At the beginning of their performance, the girls began with the trademark three-note whistle from “The Hunger Games” and slyly transitioned into Lorde’s “Royals.” Vice President and Music Director of the group Emily Duncan carried the tune of the three notes without failing to miss a beat. Their eclectic set list also consisted of songs by Florence and The Machine, Eminem, Olly Murs, Bruno Mars, Amy Winehouse, and Salt N’ Pepa.

The 14 members of the group are separated into the groups VoVets and VoBabies.

For their first concert, they gave “VoBaby” Saiba Singh the opportunity to sing “Runaway Baby” by Bruno Mars, which allowed Singh to bring the atmosphere to an energetic climax as she sassily sang the song with a bit of funk—and the audience responded approvingly. The dynamics among the members were very intimate throughout the performance; they supported one another in every song, allowing the featured vocalists to shine through the group’s collective voice. The performance by VocalMotion and their opening acts was a success, and there is no doubt that the group and their future events will only continue to flourish.

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Arts & Entertainment

The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

Speak Volumes: Electrifying Performances at ‘2 Future’

Photos Courtesy | Speak Volumes Media

Above: People dance to the music being played at Speak Volume’s blog party in Isla Vista on Nov. 16, 2013.

Photo by Nick Hong | The Bottom Line

Above: Devin Bierman performing along with Chris Cubbison at Speak Volume’s blog party in Isla Vista on Nov. 16, 2013.

Photo by Margarita Baliyan | Staff Photographer

Photo Courtesy | Speak Volumes Media

Above: Anisha Sisodia, a third year psychology major with a minor in Spanish, with Brettly Fletcher, a third year physics major, at Speak Volume’s blog party in Isla Vista on Nov. 16, 2013.

Above: Chris Cubbison performing at Speak Volume’s blog party in Isla Vista on Nov. 16, 2013.

by Cindy Chan Under a clear night sky, stringed twinkling lights snake a metallic perimeter scattered with mason jars cradling tea lights, and an Isla Vista backyard transforms into a futuristic, galactic wonderland. Adorned with retro cassettes as ears and film strips as hair, a hand-crafted robotic snowman perches by a cozy couch lounge, awaiting the main event. An enchanting energy emanates for Santa Barbara’s homegrown music blog Speak Volumes’ concert, entitled “2 Future.”

On Saturday, Nov. 16, 6779 Trigo was a night of live electronic beats, ambi-

ent-techno sounds, and magnetically raw vocals by UCSB’s own Khougaz, Cub’b, and Eddie Atom.

The night was unveiled by a collaborative trio of three local artists.

Described by Speak Volumes as a cross between “intelligent dance, Gramatik-style trip-hop, and ambient techno,” electronica composer Khougaz (Pierce Frawley), belted out soulful vocals while on the balladic keys. Electrified with the charismatic, classic-rock guitar styling of Christian “Cardoza” Brown, and the engrossingly raspy voice of dynamic rapper Molly Hamill, the group’s enigmatic sound was cemented. The receptive

crowd, sprinkled with funky, futuristic costumes, devoured the described “pseudo-trap” rhyming style of firsttime performer Hamill.

Local artist Cub’b (Chris Cubbison) played minimal, body-rocking electronic tracks embellished with pleasantly echoic, guttural vocals.

As the twinkling lights on the scene slowly blinked away, the smooth accompaniments of guitarist Sean Nolan and bassist Devin Bierman eased the night into a velvety, grooving vibe, as event-goers absorbed the entrancing beat work of Cub’b.

Even the night’s most original costumes—a plush, full-bodied bunny;

a ridiculously accurate Buzz Lightyear; and a futuristic Cowardly Lion straight from Oz—were no match in inventiveness to the night’s closer, Eddie Atom (UCSB alum Eddie Perez). Influenced by Mariachi music, marching band beats, and Asian/ Middle Eastern ethnic sounds, Atom’s love for jazz and beat-boxing rings was apparent in his works. His electronic sound commenced as refreshingly original. The emotive quality of the set was well-versed; tracks were layered with synthetic textures, acoustic instrumentals, and haunting background vocals. Atom’s music provided the ideal explorative soundtrack to

decorate and close the curtain on the night’s festivities.

This live music event tucked away in IV was a laudable display of community. The artistic platform Speak Volumes creates for local artists of all genres to share their music is one that is whole-heartedly enjoyed by students and community members.

Sheathed with a lucidly mellow ambiance, this modest yet successful event more than pleased ears with impressive local talent and effort. As I overheard one attendee say, “I’m definitely feeling this.”

Above: Matt Meyer, third year, Leah Hardin, third year, and Henry Raschke, fourth year, sound it out on the Embarcadero Hall stage.

Above: Third years Mason Sperling, Matt Meyer, and Ian Davis at Improvability’s Friday night show. Check out their next performance on November 30th.

Hunger (Improv) Games Improvability, University of California, Santa Barbara’s improv comedy group, put on their eighth show of the quarter in the theme of “The Hunger Games” on Friday, Nov. 15, at Embarcadero Hall. The all-female a cappella group VocalMotion started the night in song, and the show provided a night of humor and laughter.

Photos by Margarita Baliyan| Staff Photographer

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Left: Improvability’s Henry Raschke, a fourth year at UCSB.

Science & Tech

The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

UCSB Theoretical Physicist Wins 2014 Frontiers Prize

by Mimi Liu STAFF WRITER Joseph Polchinski, physics professor and permanent member of UCSB’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), is one of several laureates for the Milner Foundation’s 2014 Physics Frontiers Prize. Professor Polchinski was awarded $300,000 for his contributions to string theory. This was his second time winning in two years.

According to the organization, the Frontiers prize is to recognize “transformative achievements in the field of fundamental physics and aim(s) to provide recipients with more freedom and opportunity to pursue future accomplishments.”

Professor Polchinski received this award due to his discovery of D-branes – a type of membrane vital for understanding string theory fully.

“By including the branes you have a more complete picture…It’s more about the branes than the strings,” Polchinski explained.

String theory tries to explain one of the biggest questions in science: what the universe is made of. Everyone knows that all

matter is made up of atoms, but string theory goes even further to explore the idea that all subatomic particles are made up of tiny vibrating strings, which are attached to branes.

Stephen Hawking theorized that black holes are made up of branes, which is “perhaps the greatest impact of branes, not just on strings, but space time itself,” Polchinski said.

Professor Polchinski’s work is significant in further understa nding not only black holes, but also the Big Bang, the expanding universe, and the inherent properties of space itself.

“Space is in some sense unstable,” Polchinski explained.

“There could one day be quantum flux that will be big enough to disrupt the universe, and space will start to fall apart.”

He explained that once upon a time, the entire universe was a tiny, infinitely dense dot that expanded rapidly to create the universe as we now know it. But how many times has the universe gone through this cycle of expansion and contraction?

Little is known about the precise beginning and workings of the universe, and scientists cannot answer these questions unless they understand more about the world. String theory seems to be the answer.

String theory unites classical physics and general relativity,

which deals with space-time on a large scale, and quantum physics, the study of microscopic particles. String theory is the beginning of a unified theory of the very structure of the universe.

“I’m guided by a few big questions,” Polchinski said. “Why did the universe begin? We still don’t have a precise equation for the beginning of time, a mathematical description,” he continued.

“The biggest goal is a real, precise mathematical theory of the beginning of time,” Polchinski said.

The Frontiers Prize will help Professor Polchinski progress further in his work, and puts him, as well as his fellow winners, in the running for the $3 million 2014 Fundamental Physics Prize. The other nominees include professors from prestigious schools such as CalTech, Cambridge, and Harvard.

“I have to give a lot of credit to UCSB and KITP,” Polchinski said. “Science doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The workshops held here for visiting scientists is what makes UCSB worldrenowned.”

“I’m exposed to new ideas, which have helped me become successful. We have a great physics department, with so many excellent colleagues and students. I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with them,” Polchinski concludes.

In the Dark: 95 Percent of the Universe Remains Unexplained

by Madison Donahue-Wolfe STAFF WRITER

Illustration by Hector Lizarraga | Staff Illustrator

Humans, along with everything on Earth and everything we have ever discovered in space, constitute less than 5 percent of the universe. This type of matter, also known as “ordinary matter,” is minuscule when compared to dark matter, which, when combined with dark energy, forms the remaining 95 percent of the universe. Interestingly, the dark matter that composes the majority of the universe remains a mystery to astrophysicists and cosmologists alike.

Dark matter is hypothesized to account for a large part of the unexplained mass that appears to be missing from the universe. Since dark matter neither absorbs nor emits light, it cannot be observed through telescopes. The only way dark matter can be observed is through its gravitational effects on visible matter and radiation. Recently, the Planck space observatory, operated by the European Space Agency, released a map of the cosmic radiation of the universe, and it is through this map that the current figures for the composition of the universe are gleaned. According to the spacecraft’s findings, the universe is comprised of 4.9 percent ordinary matter, 26.8 percent dark matter, and 68.3 percent dark energy.

An attempt to understand dark matter was made at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, where several

supercomputers ran simulations modeling the intricate physics of mass in an expanding universe. This project, called the Hardware/Hybrid Accelerated Cosmology Code (HACC), tracks roughly 1.1 trillion particles as they expand and bind together. The goal was to better understand patterns of matter and, by doing this, be able to detect the dark matter that makes up a majority of the universe.

This project required some of the most powerful supercomputers on Earth. According to The Verge, the simulation used an astounding processing power of over 25 petaflops, a speed only one other supercomputer in the world could manage. This amount of processing power allowed the simulation to track trillions of mass particles as they combine to form larger structures. These initial mass distributions are dominated by dark matter, and from this dark matter, ordinary matter forms into galaxies and stars.

Although this simulation provided some idea of the mass distributions by which dark matter forms, scientists still debate what dark matter actually is. Clear ideas exist on what dark matter is not, however. It is not in the form of dark clouds of normal matter, which is made up

of particles called baryons. Baryonic clouds would be detectable by the radiation passing through them, and since dark matter does not absorb any light or radiation, this is not a possible explanation. It is also not antimatter, which emits unique gamma rays when it annihilates with ordinary matter.

The most common view among cosmologists is that dark matter is comprised of WIMPS (Weakly Interactive Massive Particles). WIMPS are subatomic particles not made up of ordinary matter. As such, these particles can pass through matter without a trace, hence the name “Weakly Interactive.” WIMPS only interact with ordinary matter via gravity and the weak nuclear force. They also do not emit any form of light or radiation, which make them a reasonable candidate for the substance that composes dark matter.

There is still much to learn about the universe, and, as 85 percent of it remains unobserved, it is clear that discoveries will continue on centuries past our lifetime. The project conducted at Argonne National Laboratory is another step toward discovering and understanding the mysterious dark matter that makes up nearly the entirety of the universe.

DrinkSavvy Company Offers Promising Counter To Date Rape Drugs Peter Crump STAFF WRITER While some may contend that the party reputation of University of California, Santa Barbara is overblown, few would claim that spending weekends out in Isla Vista comes completely without danger. Simple mistakes like carrying a cup on the street or sitting on the sidewalk can be easily avoided, but other dangers, like date rape, are more difficult to fight. An emerging company called DrinkSavvy strives to combat date rape by using glassware that will alert you if your drink has been spiked, effectively countering date rape drugs.

The simplest way to prevent your drink from being spiked is by keeping it in sight. However, as DrinkSavvy founder Mike Abramson explains on the products website, in reality, “It’s impossible” to keep your eye on your drink all night,

and popular date rape drugs such as GHB and Rohypnol are “odorless, colorless, and tasteless once they are in your drink.”

In a recent interview with NBC, Abramson, who has been drugged unwittingly himself, explained his motivation behind starting the company.

“I was at a bar celebrating a friend’s birthday and I went to the bar to get my first drink of the night and really not long thereafter it started feel much more like my 15,” Abramson said. He was lucky that his friends brought him home safely, though he woke up the next morning “not knowing what happened the night before.”

After going through such an experience and contemplating “what could have happened,” Abramson now offers a solution to help the “over a million estimated victims a year” of “drug facilitated sexual assault,” according to the DrinkSavvy website.

According to the Guardian, Abramson found current drink testing kits that use paper tabs to be too cumbersome.

“You have to pull it out, you have to dip it in your drink, wave it around, wait till it dries off, then you have to see if it changes color,” he said—and that’s not to mention that you have to remember to do it in the first place. So with the help of John MacDonald, a professor of chemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Abramson developed DrinkSavvy.

If your drink is spiked, then a pattern of colored stripes will appear around the cup. Similarly, if the DrinkSavvy straw is used, the color of the straw will change completely. Currently, only disposable plastic cups and straws are in development, but there are future plans to expand to glassware, bottles, and cans as well, according to the Bangor Daily News.

Sexual assaults involving alcohol and non-date

rape drugs like marijuana and cocaine are more common than assaults with “date-rape” drugs.

According to WFSB news, a study conducted

by Brown University showed that alcohol was involved in “90% of all [college] campus rapes.

Still, Abramson says the risks of “date rape” drugs are real, according to the Guardian. He goes on to say that while DrinksSavvy products are currently “focused on combating drug-facilitated assault, the larger message is much more important,” the best way to prevent any substance related sexual assaults is through education.

“If you can raise awareness about it,” he said, “you’re doing half the battle right there.”

DrinkSavvy is currently in the development stage, but the company has raised $52,000 from individual contributors and will begin shipping out the disposable cups and straws to crowdfunders by December. The products will be available to the general public beginning mid-2014.

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The Bottom Line | Nov. 20 - Nov. 26

Opinions

Malala’s Message of Equality Shouldn’t Be

Revolutionary

Illustration by Amanda Excell | Staff Illustrator

by Sam Goldman STAFF WRITER

Malala Yousafzai’s book has been banned in thousands of Pakistani schools based on accusations that she has become a tool of the West.

It often takes something quite extraordinary happening in the non-Western world for the average American to take note, let alone eagerly follow. One figure to recently achieve this level of extraordinariness is Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head last year by the Pakistani Taliban for denouncing the group’s attacks on girls’ education. After making a full recovery, she went on to write a memoir, “I Am Malala,” and tour much of the Western world, meeting everyone from Jon Stewart to Queen Elizabeth II, all the while continuing to promote education for all.

Despite the wave of international attention she brought to girls’ education in her home country, the initial support of Pakistan’s main political parties and leaders, and her consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize, 40,000 private schools in Pakistan, according to NPR, have banned her book. The chairman of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, who was behind the ban, said “she became a tool in the hands of the Western powers” who does not represent Pakistan or Islam. One example he cited was her failure to use an abbreviation of respect before Muhammad’s name in her memoir.

It is difficult not to see Yousafzai as a Western figure. She may be from Pakistan and be advocating girls’ education there; however, it is the West that has generally shown greater support for

this ideal—in light of how many Western versus non-Western nations live up to it—and Yousafzai did make a famous tour of the West and its bigwigs.

However, Western values are also widely regarded, even by some people in the West, as being exclusionary, if not wholly oblivious to other philosophies. Practitioners have a tendency to push these values onto the rest of the world for the purpose of conformation, not to mention their close ties to the all-powerful Western-centric view of the world and its history. From the justifiably suspicious perspective of the private school administrators, it’s not hard to see how Yousafzai is threatening to Westernize Pakistani values and society.

While it is true that some Western values are not in everyone’s best interest, any possible Westernization of Yousafzai’s position on education is irrelevant to the topic at hand. Rather than looking at the historical and geographical background of who does and does not support an idea, we should focus on the idea itself: education for girls. It shouldn’t matter whether the concept is a Western one, if the post-industrial powers influenced Yousafzai, or if the idea of education for girls is something many Pakistanis are not accustomed to. It comes down to whether or not we believe education for girls, in and of itself, is something we should strive for.

Considering the innumerable benefits it confers on both women and society as a whole—from less poverty to more human capital—it would be absolutely unfair, not to mention painfully antiquated, to not support and implement the idea of girls’ education, even in a country with a strong, centuries-old culture that may run counter to the idea. As Yousafzai told Jon Stewart, “I realized that education is very important and education is the power for women and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education.

They do not want women to get education because then women will become more powerful.”

Looking at the big picture, it seems pretty reasonable for Pakistan to work on fixing the educational gender disparity even without the global pressure that Yousafzai is generating. It shouldn’t be seen as the West trying to press Western values on Pakistan, but rather as the West (and hopefully the rest of the world as well) trying to press Pakistan to act on a genuinely great idea.

And it’s not just Pakistan that is failing at separating ideas from background. The West should not need a shot to the head by the Taliban tacked onto an already bright and inspirational girl’s body of work in order to focus its attention on this issue. A girl going out of her way in an often dangerous area of the world to speak out for equal education should be enough. We shouldn’t have to wait until this girl gets shot in order to truly lend our voices to hers.

Is the Apple of Adams’ Eye Too Costly?

Janani Ravikumar STAFF WRITER In a move inspired by a similar campaign in Los Angeles, over 1,000 Santa Barbara students—third through sixth graders at Adams, Franklin, and Washington elementary schools and 11th graders at La Cuesta Continuation High School—may be required to begin using iPads for school purposes. These students are presented with three options: purchase an iPad 4 with Retina display, 16 gigabytes of storage, and Wi-Fi capabilities for about $20 a month over the course of three years; bring the same device with the same features from home; or use a district-purchased tablet. All this is for the purpose of giving lowerincome students and their families a chance to become familiar with this technology, preparing them for when they inevitably encounter students and teachers in junior high with more exposure to technology. But is such a radical initiative really worth the $624,384 cost?

The Los Angeles Unified School District, which set the precedent for the initiative in Santa Barbara, faced some problems regarding this project.

According to the Los Angeles Times, teachers reported that they were unable to connect to the Internet in certain classrooms. Three hundred students bypassed security measures that prevented them from reaching prohibited sites on the Internet when using the tablets off-campus. Additionally, there was no clear explanation of what to do or who would be held accountable if the iPad was lost, stolen, or broken.

Illustration by Hector Lizarraga | Staff Illustrator According to LAUSD superintendent John Deasy, the goal of the project is to provide students in poverty with the same tools that are so easily accessible to students from wealthier backgrounds. However, while the goal itself is laudable, the execution is not. Apple provides a wide variety of applications meant to be used for educational purposes, such as apps designed to help children learn how to read; apps that explain various mathematical subjects such as algebra

and statistics; apps that teach biology, physics, chemistry, anatomy, and other scientific subjects; apps that teach history; and so on. As a part of this program, students will be required to download some of these applications so that they can be used as learning devices in the classroom and for enrichment at home. But these aren’t the only apps students can download onto their iPads—they can also download a wide variety of games and other means of distraction, like doodle pads

and the like.

How many times have you stopped paying attention during lectures and gone on Facebook or surfed the Internet? If we, college students, older and (arguably) more mature, cannot exercise this much self-control, how can we expect high school and elementary school students to do the same? Also, there is the question of whether purchasing an iPad for every student is worth the price. iPads cost, on average, anywhere between $500

and $900. Suppose that the school district will cover the cost for each and every one of these iPads for every student in Santa Barbara Unified School District’s five high schools and 13 elementary schools—the amount of money required to cover all of this would be enormous. Is this movement vital in bumping up students of lower economic standing to the level of students from wealthier backgrounds when just notebooks, textbooks, and calculators will help them the same way academically?

The initiative has an admirable goal, but there are other ways to bring less wealthy students up to par with their more tech savvy peers. Computer labs in schools could be updated with the latest computers; this would not be nearly as expensive as providing each student with an iPad, because even though computers are more expensive, fewer would need to be purchased. Students can learn to use these computers as a part of their curriculum, and teachers and faculty can encourage students to use these computers at every opportunity. Security measures on school computers will be much more difficult to bypass, and, with fewer devices to manage, violations can be easily spotted and dealt with accordingly. The extra money that goes into purchasing iPads can be used for better resources, such as hiring new teachers, buying new textbooks, and funding more field trips—all of which will eventually help students more than purchasing iPads will.

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